I've always had major problems with these pens. Maybe I press down too hard because I always end up smearing/smudging the lines I've drawn over with the side of my hand as I'm drawing. I've even waited 1 min before going back over a sketch and it still smudges. Beautiful lines, but for all the troubles I go through I usually just stick with my bic ballpoint.

It was one of the main reasons why i bought them. Dont like that they leave a lot of ink blobs however.

I never get ink blobs with my pens, that's the main reason I like them.

Got a little story about one of my pens. One time while I was hanging out with some buddies at a busy coffee shop, a woman asked the cashier if she could borrow a pen, I knew she was a regular so I offered to let her use one of my Hi-Tec C's. Next thing I look over at her table and she is chewing my pen and doing all kinds of stuff with it! I saw that woman again several times after that incident but she never offered to give it back, needless to say it wasn't that important to me anymore.

I went to buy some replacement Hi-Tec C pens today and the woman at the store told me that ever since this article in the New York Times praising the Uni-ball Signo UM-151 people have been coming in asking for them.

I've been coming across a similar Pilot pen called the G-Tec-C, seen them at a couple of stationery shops. I bought one and it turned out to be the same as the Hi-Tec-C under a slightly different name.

I imagine the big wigs at Pilot got word that third parties were importing the Hi-Tec-C's and realized there was potential to make money by bypassing the middle man.

They're a bit cheaper but they don't have the same color and tip size selection as the Hi-Tec-C's.